Absentee voting ban, IVF, Pride flags: Down in Alabama
Gov. Kay Ivey signs bill banning some forms of help with absentee voting
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed into law a bill that Republicans say would prevent fraud in absentee voting but that Democrats and some advocacy groups say will criminalize work that helps the elderly, disabled, and incarcerated people cast their ballots.
The new law takes effect immediately.
Ballot harvesting is a term that generally means the mass distribution or collection of absentee ballot applications or ballots. Republican officials supporting the bill have said it happens in Alabama but have generally not provided specific examples.
Democratic lawmakers who opposed the bill said it was was part of a national GOP effort to try to give some credibility to former President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that mass fraud caused his defeat in the 2020 election.
The new law adds new restrictions and criminal penalties to section 17-11-4 of the code of Alabama, which governs absentee voting applications. The strictest penalties apply to those who receive a payment or pay someone else for helping with applications. Some parts of the new law apply to situations not involving a payment.
The League of Women Voters of Alabama, which opposed the bill since Republicans first introduced it last year, issued a statement after the bill passed, saying that helping voters is not a crime and should not be treated as such.
Birmingham mother testifies at U.S. Senate in support of IVF
A woman who had her IVF treatment interrupted after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children testified yesterday in Washington in support of protections for the treatment.
Jamie Heard of Birmingham told members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that she was diagnosed with a disorder that made it difficult to become pregnant. She and her husband used IVF to become pregnant with their son and had hoped to add another child. They met with their doctor on Feb. 14 to begin that process.
On Feb. 16, a majority on the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Child Act. Heard had just begun treatment to have another embryo transferred when the decision occurred. Her clinic and others around the state paused procedures to evaluate the legal risks.
A bill to protect IVF treatment access across the country has faced opposition from Republican members of Congress. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., blocked a vote on the bill, arguing that it went too far and could expose anti-abortion and religious groups to lawsuits.
Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said yesterday that they supported IVF, but some accused Democrats of using the issue as a weapon. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said the hearing was not about IVF, but about access to abortion.
Democrats said the Alabama IVF ruling was one example of how losing federal protections for abortion has affected reproductive health care. The committee chair, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said the fall of Roe vs. Wade opened the door to disruptions in IVF treatment in Alabama.
Alabama legislators add ban on Pride flags in schools to ‘Don’t Say Gay’ expansion
Alabama legislators waved through a bill that would ban discussion or instruction about gender identity or sexual orientation in all grades, K-12, to the floor, and added a ban on Pride flags in schools.
The House Education Policy Committee also considered an amendment from the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, that would add Space Camp as a place that cannot instruct children on LGBTQ issues, but the rider failed. Butler wanted the amendment added after a Huntsville school parent posted on social media about a transgender employee at Space Camp.
The parent and lawmakers who then called for the employee’s firing did not specify any wrongdoing by the employee. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center told media that “no child has been physically harmed on our campus.”
In 2022, Alabama passed a law that stops K-5 educators from specifically talking about LGBTQ topics in the classroom. Butler’s bill would expand the prohibition to all K-12 teachers.
Some educators and state officials say they don’t think the bill is needed, and that it could make it hard for educators to teach on certain topics. LGBTQ advocates say the bill is targeted at LGBTQ young people and will make students more likely to be isolated and afraid.
The amendment says that “no teacher, or other public K-12 employee, may display a flag or other insignia relating to or representing sexual orientation or gender identity in a classroom or on the property of a public K-12 school.”
Alabama committee wants to stop electing the board of a local library
A House committee approved a bill by Rep. Arnold Mooney, HB89, that would appoint the board members of an Alabama library system instead of selecting them through a public election.
The North Shelby Public Library is the only system in Alabama not formed or maintained under a city council or county commission. A 1988 legislative act created the library as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that’s almost entirely funded by residents.
This legislation follows months of book challenges and concerns about “inappropriate content” for children in public libraries statewide.
The proposed legislation has been “years in discussion,” according to a statement this week on the Shelby County legislative delegation website. “Under the current statute, there is no oversight to the board, and we believe that every dollar of tax payer money should have the same checks-and-balance that other publicly funded entities have to meet,” the delegation said.
The legislation requires one member be a business owner living in the district.